Padres Sign Off in Montreal With Win : Flannery Continues His ‘Mission,’ Goes 4 for 4 in 5-3 Victory

Their day began with John Kruk predicting that Tim Flannery, making only his 23rd start for the Padres this season, would get four hits.

“I had drunk too much coffee,” Kruk said.

Their day ended more than three hours later, after the madness of 11 Padres having been left on base, 4 Padres having been left on third base, 2 ejections, a run-scoring balk and a temper tantrum by the player who had just driven in the winning run.

It was a perfect situation for the Padres perfectly impassioned player, Flannery. When it was over, indeed, he had collected his four hits and the Padres had a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Expos in front of 29,615 at Olympic Stadium.

You’ve heard about the drive for .500? Now you know about the drive for $400,000.

“People ask me if I’m on a salary drive,” said Flannery, fighting to persuade Padre management to pick up the one-year, $400,000 option on his soon-to-expire contract. “I tell them, man, I’m on a survival mission.”

He picked a good day to tell it again as he lifted the Padres off what was an ash heap of a game. With the victory, the Padres took two of three games in this series. They moved back to within one game of .500 (64-65) with the New York Mets up next.

The man who has been around for bits of 10 Padre seasons had his finest day of this one. He went 4 for 4 with 2 singles, a double, a triple and an RBI. Considering he also reached first base when he was hit by a pitch, the only thing missing from his repertoire was a home run.

“That’s as good as it gets,” Flannery said. “I guarantee you, I’m not going to hit a home run.”

Flannery scored what the Padres hoped would be their winning run after a sixth-inning triple. But after Padre reliever Mark Davis gave the run and the lead back in the seventh, Flannery cinched the game with a single in the ninth that scored Tony Gwynn.

In between, after an eighth-inning double, he was even involved in a collision with large Expo catcher Nelson Santovenia after Flannery tried to sneak home. Flannery was out, but his aggressive reputation was safe.

“The next time up I asked him, ‘Why don’t they make catchers who weigh 110 pounds?’ ” Flannery said.

Lately Flannery has been in the middle of a lot of things, with 11 hits in his last 20 at-bats (.550) to improve his average to .287. Problem is, Flannery is not sure how much good it’s doing him because Padre President Chub Feeney has told Flannery’s agent, Steve Greenberg, the same thing he has told every Padre involved in an off-season decision. Feeney is not talking to anybody until September.

“All I know is, there’s nothing I can do in these last weeks that I haven’t done in 10 years here,” Flannery said. “All I can do is keep doing what I’ve done--battled, scraped, prayed, thrown in a little hustle. And then hoped for good things.”

That was the only way to approach Sunday, when Flannery’s play was the most normal part of the day. For example:

-- After Keith Moreland’s line drive was caught by a diving Tracy Jones in deep left field in the ninth, Moreland threw his hands in the air, stalked off the field, bounced his helmet on the ground and slammed around a few bats.

And that line drive had just driven in the eventual game-winning run.

“Heck, I would have gotten that run in somehow, that wasn’t the point,” said Moreland, who hit the liner with one out to drive in Roberto Alomar from third base.

“It’s just that catch was 1988 for me in one play,” Moreland said later. “That was an example of what’s been happening.”

-- The Expos’ two best starting pitchers were thrown out of the game at the same time and both for the same thing--making obscene gestures.

After starting pitcher Pascual Perez had balked home Flannery with the go-ahead run in the sixth, he was thrown out for flashing an obscene sign at third base umpire Bob Davidson. When Davidson stalked Perez to the Expo bench, staff ace Dennis Martinez was waiting there with another obscene gesture.

“I sure wish players had the power to throw umpires out of the game the way they can throw players out of the game,” Martinez said later.

Perez, who entered the game with a 2.43 ERA, was conspicuous in his absence. In Perez’s six innings, the Padres could collect only 6 hits and 2 runs. In the next three innings off four different Expo relievers, they collected 6 more hits and scored 3 runs.

-- Padre stopper Davis cost starter Ed Whitson a win by allowing a two-out single by Tracy Jones in the seventh, which gave the Expos’ a 3-2 lead when Marvell Wynne threw wild from left field allowing Andres Galarraga to score on the play. So what happens? Lance McCullers relieves Davis and McCullers (3-6) gets the win, throwing two shutout innings.

Padre Notes

Dennis Rasmussen threw for 15 minutes before Sunday’s game and said he is fit for a start at New York against the Mets Tuesday. It will be Rasmussen’s first start since he pulled a hamstring Aug. 17 against Montreal. He will have missed 11 games and two starts. “I feel great, I’m ready to go,” said Rasmussen, who thought he was ready to pitch this past weekend in Montreal, but whose request to Manager Jack McKeon last week was denied. “Now he’s coming back when we’re sure that he’s healthy and ready,” McKeon said. “We just didn’t want to take a chance and get him for one start before losing him for the rest of the season.” . . . Third baseman Chris Brown, who has played no significant role on this team lately, injured his right heel while walking off the field Saturday. “I stepped wrong on a seam (in the artificial surface),” said Brown, who injured it in the sixth inning. “It’s feeling better, I’m just watching it day to day.”